Military contracts arm support company Babcock for growth February 11, 2014 BABCOCK shares rose 3.95 per cent yesterday after the engineering services firm said trading was good in the UK and overseas. The firm said its order book now stands at £11.5bn, having won £700m-worth of work in the quarter including rail electrification contacts with Network Rail and services on Total’s oil platforms in the North [...]
Segro snaps up European sites February 11, 2014 A subsidiary of industrial landlord Segro yesterday spent €472m (£393m) on warehouses and land in Germany, Poland and France. Segro European Logistics Partnership (SELP) will take over 14 sites. “The off-market acquisition of this significant portfolio, just four months after the creation of SELP, increases the joint venture’s position in some of the best logistics [...]
BMW car sales hit fresh record February 11, 2014 BMW said it delivered a record 132,892 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles in January, a 7.8 per cent rise from the year-earlier period, citing strong demand for its BMW 3 Series Sedan and the BMW 5 Series. BMW brand sales rose 9.2 per cent to 117,164. “Looking ahead, although the economic climate remains challenging in [...]
Heathrow heralds January jump February 11, 2014 Heathrow hailed a jump in demand for flights to emerging markets as its January traffic rose 3.8 per cent to 5.4m passengers. The airport said 26 per cent more customers were heading for China than a year ago, and traffic to Latin America was up 9.8 per cent. “January’s traffic figures reflect a strong start [...]
City Moves for 12 February 2014 | Who’s switching jobs February 11, 2014 Cushman & Wakefield The real estate services firm has announced the appointment of David Mills as a partner and head of portfolio valuation. He was most recently at BNP Paribas Real Estate, where he was a director in its portfolio valuation practice. Standard Chartered The bank has hired Michael Benz as group head of private banking. He [...]
Best of the Brokers for 12 February 2014 February 11, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com IMAGINATION TECHNOLOGIES Investec maintained its “hold” rating for the processor maker with a target price of 170p. The broker said that the battle between Mediatek’s smartphone platform, containing Imagination’s chip, and rivals would be a risk during 2014 as Mediatek is its second [...]
London Report: Retail sales revival drives FTSE up to late January levels February 11, 2014 The UK’S top equity index rose for a fifth straight session yesterday, boosted by retailers which were up strongly on industry data that provided more evidence the economic recovery is slowly gathering momentum. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed up by 1.2 per cent, or 81.11 points, at 6,672.66 points – marking the index’s highest [...]
New York Report: Debt deal sees stocks get a lift February 11, 2014 WALL STREET rose for a fourth straight session yesterday as Congress agreed to advance legislation extending US borrowing authority and the Federal Reserve’s new chief held off from making any changes to its schedule for trimming stimulus. Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives caved in to demands by President Barack Obama and agreed [...]
Flooding crisis: A case study in the failure of government on all levels February 11, 2014 THE STATE’S many faces have been tearing pieces out of each other as the water level rises around London commuter towns. Who is to blame for England’s flooding crisis? Eric Pickles said it was the Environment Agency, but now thinks everyone should work together. Labour’s Lord Smith, the Agency’s head, has criticised spending cuts. David [...]
Business is under attack: It’s time for companies to stand up for themselves February 11, 2014 THERE was a time when corporate communication was straightforward. The chief audiences were shareholders and analysts. There was a well-established way of reaching them through the financial media. The combination of the financial crisis and technological change has created a new landscape. The crisis brought into sharp relief the negative externalities that business can create. [...]
